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^ BOOK OF DESIGNS ^ 



SCHOOL HOUSES, 



SUGGESTIONS AS TO OBTAINING PLANS, 



HOW TO HEAT AND VENTILATE 



SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 



By G. P. RANDALL, Architect. 



CHICAGO: 

KNIGHT & LEONARD, PRINTERS. 

1884. 



V 






Below I give the reader a list of some of the prominent 
buildings for educational purposes designed by me, but this 
list only comprises a small part of what we call public school 
buildings that I have designed : 

Northwestern University, Evanston, III. 

Evanston College for Ladies, Evanston, 111. 

Ladies' College of Madison University, Madison, Wis. 

Mercer University, Macon, Ga. 

Academy of the Sacred Heart, St. Louis, Mo. 

St. Mary's Academy, Leavenworth, Kas. 

Jefferson Liberal Institute, Jefferson, Wis. 

State Normal University, Normal, III. 

State Normal School, Winona, Minn. 

State Normal School, Whitewater, Wis. 

State Normal School, Platteville, Wis. 

Marshall, Mich. 

Clinton, 111. 

Atchison, Kas. 

Denver, Colo. 

Madison, Wis. 

Kankakee, III. 

Winona, Minn. 

Berlin, Wis. 

Litchfield, 111. 

OIney, 111. 

Galesburg, III. 

Red Wing, Minn. 

Aurora, III. 

La Porte, Ind. 

Plymouth, Ind. 

Menominee, Mich. 

Marinette, Wis. 

Dodgeville, Wis. 

Omaha, Neb. 

St. Paul, Minn. 

Elkhart, Ind. 

And several hundred Ward School buildings scattered over the 
country, South to the Gulf States, East as far as Pennsylvania 
and Vermont, West to Colorado, North to Minnesota, and 
within a radius of five hundred miles of this city a great 
many. 



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221 

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^_^^^4±-^^ 



BOOK OF DESIGNS 



SCHOOL HOUSES, 



SUGGESTIONS AS TO OBTAINING PLANS, 



HOW TO HEAT AND VENTILATE 



SCHOOL BTJILDIJSTGS. 



/ 







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By 


G. 


P. 


RANDALL 


, ARCHITECn 


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KNIGHT 


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CHICAGO: 
& LEONARD, 


f m 17 

PRINZES: 


1884 (i 








1884. 







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CorYRiGnT, 1883, 
By G. p. RANDALL. 



TO THE PUBLIC. 



I distribute this pamphlet, gratuitously, for the purpose of 
advertising my business, and while this is directed more espe- 
cially to school boards and educational men generally, I would 
not have it supposed that my work is exclusively in this line of 
buildings, though I have designed both of school houses and 
churches probably five times as many of these buildings as 
have fallen to the lot of any other architect in the JSTorthwest. 
My business is largely, though by no means exclusively, on 
public buildings. I design hotels, private dwellings, stores, 
banking houses, — in short, almost everything for which the 
services of an architect are required. If in addition to the 
designing, clients desire my services in superintending the 
work, they can have them if within a radius of five or six 
hundred miles of here, and within that distance I can do it 
thoroughly and well, though I am aware that the general opin- 
ion among those who know little or nothing about it is, that at 
such great distances an architect cannot do such superintend- 
ing. This is a great mistake, for with a good contractor, the 
architect can always give the work all necessary superintend- 
ence if he looks it over once a month, which is the usual custom 
outside the city wherein is located his place of business ; and if 
the contractor proves to be a man who through trickery or 
ignorance does not do his work fairly, I always have a clause 
in the contract by which I can, if necessary, employ an in- 
spector, and charge the expense to the contractor. This will 
generally bring them to a sense of duty. But a visit of inspec- 
tion once a month, from and by an expert, will do more toward 
keeping the work going correctly, than the services of a dozen 
local mechanics or school directors watching it all the time. 



6 noOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

this line conception in church architecture, and there is a man 
in New York who is herahling thi.s falsehood by circuhirs sent 
broadcast all over the country. He claims that the Taber- 
nacle, built in 1870, was the tirst church built in this style, 
but unfortunately for his unfounded claim to other people's 
"thunder," a stone tablet built into the walls of the Union 
Park Church says that it was erected in 1861). 

The cliurch was deemed so great a success in its conception 
tiiat Mr, Bowen, of the New York Indepeiide7it, came here 
and had drawings made of the exterior and interior, showing 
the new feature in church designing, had it engraved, and 
published, and scattered over Christendom, wherever the Iii- 
dependent was read, 1:25,000 copies of this improved church 
architecture. Since then Union Park Church has been the 
model that all have tried to equal. 

The 13a})tist Church, Grand Rapids, Mich., the Congrega- 
tional Church at Mansfield, ()., and Madison, Wis., and the 
Universalist Church, Minneapolis, Minn., are among the best 
churches in the country, and all modeled substantially atter 
Union Park Church of this city. The large Westminster 
Church,_ now building at Minneapolis, Minn., is from a design 
by Randall ct Miller, made some three years since, while Mr. 
Miller and myself were associated in business. 

Previous to the great tire, as well as since, I have designed 
an immense number of churches of all grades and sizes, that 
will compare favorably with a like number in any part of the 
country. 

I can make designs for small, cheap houses on the amphi- 
theater plan, as well as large ones. 

lUOGKALMIICAL. 

1 am now (November, 1883) nearly sixty-three years old. 
I was born and raised a mechanic, my father having been a 
practical builder and millwright before me, which business I 
followed chierty till twenty-one years old. Then I commenced 
my architectural studies in the office of Ashar Benjamin, of 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOE SCHOOL HOUSES. 7 

Boston. At the age of twenty-five and till tliirtj years old I 
was engaged in the engineering departments of the Yermont 
Central (now Central Yermont) and Eutland & Burlington 
railways, after which I came west and have been actively 
engaged in the practice of my profession ever since. 

In the construction of heavy buildings I have realized the 
advantages gained by my early railway and engineering prac- 
tice, and I have since kept up the study of that branch of my 
profession as a valuable auxiliary to my profession of architect. 

In later years I have made scientific studies my chief recre- 
ation, some of the results of which will be found occasionally 
outcropping in these pages. 

ADVERTISEMENT. 

In the past twenty-seven or twenty-eight years that I havk 
been doing business in this city I have designed a great num- 
ber of school buildings, more, probably, than have fallen to the 
lot of any other architect in this city, or in the Northwest, and 
from time to time, as I have found opportunity, I have pub- 
lished pamphlets containing cuts of such as I have thought 
would interest school boards, and be regarded by them as such 
models as 'they would like to copy. 

Those published heretofore have met with an unvarying 
success, and not only have aided school boards in determining 
what they wanted, but have made me, for my trouble, a fair 
return by a liberal increase of business in that specialty. 

Hitherto I have generally inserted only the perspective or 
exterior views, but in this one I have given the interiors also. 

Now, it should be understood that I cannot aiford to throw 
away so much time, money (some thousands of dollars) and 
labor for the benefit of school directors and school boards 
alone. It is only fair when having done this, and aided them 
so much in determining what they want, that they should 
reciprocate, by giving me their orders for architectural service 
in the construction of their buildings. The pages of this book 
are intended to show my ability, or want of ability, to design 



8 BOOK OF DF.SIONS FOR SCHOOL HOUSKS. 

Buch buildings ; lience if school boards want my services, thoy 
must pcivc me a fair trial, and then if I do not succeed in 
making them what they want, they are at liberty to try some 
one else, but one at a time is sufficient. 

I am constrained to say this for the reason that school 
boards, like individuals, do not seem to realize the great 
expense of getting up such designs, but seem to understand 
that architects can do it for recreation or a |)astime. 

I have often found that after spending tifty or a iiundred 
dollars in designing a building, and perhaps weeks of valuable 
time, and, what is more, after making just such a design as 
they have said they- wanted, that some architectural tramp or 
*' local" professional would put in his claim, and by under- 
estimating the cost of his building, or by offering to make 
,, ans for less than they would cost me, or by other means or 
ubterfuge which boards should not recognize, get the work 
iway from me. If boards do not find on these pages designs 
that exactly suit them, let them refer them back to me, and if 
I do not succeed in making what they want, then I will step 
down and let some one else try. But I do not send these pam- 
phlets gratuitously to school boards as their property further 
than as they are disposed to use them for the advancement of 
my interests. They are protected from illicit plunder by 
oovEUXMKNT (^oi'YKiGHT, wliicli covcrs uot only the text, but 
the plates and cuts as well, so that they may not be partially 
or wholly appropriated in any or all their parts without my 
consent. 

I will be obliged to any school boards into whose hands they 
may fall, if they will preserve them in the archives of the 
board, for the benefit of themselves and their future successors 
in office. 

It sent to mechanics or other individuals, or if they fall into 
the hands of such, they are to be subject to the same condi- 
tions. 

For the reason that 1 furnish such drawings at a somewhat 
reduced rate, and not wanting to fix prices on other ])eople'8 
work, I do not name my commissions for such work here, but 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 9 

will do so in each individual case, if the parties wanting plans 
will write me, stating substantially what thej want to build, 
the size or number of rooms in the building, etc. 

What DATA should be sent an architect when plans are 
wanted ? 

In ordinary plans for a school building, the architect will 
want a rough pencil plat of the lot, with dimensions marked on 
it, and a brief description of its general surroundings, and 
POINTS of COMPASS. Do not forget this latter. 

Then we want to know how many school rooms there are to 
be, with the number in a room, and whether seated with single 
or double desks. 

Give us also the general direction of the portion of the town 
from which the building will be most seen, and the principal 
approaches. 

State the nature of the soil, and whether dry or wet, and 
whether the ground or site is high or low as compared with the 
street or streets and other surroundings ; say if other buildings 
adjacent to the lot are high or low, and from which direction 
the prevailing winds blow. 

State the general character and quality of rubble stone to 
be used, and facilities for getting it; also it" cut stone and brick 
can be obtained. 

And, lastly, say about how much you expect the building 
to cost. 

Unless you select a plan from this book, the approximate 
cost of which is indicated in the book, I cannot be responsible 
for the cost of any buildings that I design only to indicate their 
general cost, and mainly for the reason that their actual cost 
depends on the judgment, or want of judgment, of the contrac- 
tors who build them. 

I do not build such buildings further than to do the work 
allotted by custom to an architect; but after making the design 
or sketches, so as to get the cubic feet in one, I can approxi- 
mate the cost as nearly as half a dozen contractors would 
estimate it in competition. To enable school boards to approx- 
imate the cost themselves, I will say that in the past two years 



10 BOOK OV DKSIONS FOU SCHOOL HOUSES. 

good substantial brick houses luive cost from $2,500 to $3,000 
per school room in all parts of the country. As a general 
rule, where labor and material are about at an average price, 
these buildings will cost about an average of these two prices. 
This is as near data as any architect or builder can give, and is 
sufficient for all ]n*actical purposes. Some jieople seem to 
think that an architect can make plans for a scliool building 
that will just meet the appropriation that a board may make, 
but this is a very grave error. It cannot be done without a 
great and unusual expense on the part of the architect. 

No architect of integrity will l)e idiot enough to undertake 
to guarantee the cost of a building nearer than this. But the 
data in this book will be found all-surticient and reliable for 
determining the cost of any school-house building. 

ARCHITECT'S FEES. 

There is no one thing connected with professional service 
of more impoi-tance than that of what is the proper fee to be 
paid for full ])rofessional service of an architect. This fee, of 
course, presupposes that the architect is a man of mature 
years, and of suthcient age and experience to command the 
confidence of those who employ him. Till he acquires this 
knowledge and experience, the law that governs trade gener- 
ally will require him to take a back seat till such time as he is 
a peer of those who have already gained that more elevated 
station. 

For the twenty seven years that 1 have made a specialty of 
designing school buildings, J have been doing so much of it 
that it has enabled me to make a liberal reduction in this fee 
for this kind of work. This general fee, and the reduction, I 
have embodied in a general fee bill, which I will forward to 
any school board or individual on receipt of information of the 
extent and character of the work for which they want my ser- 
vices. I take this method of getting at it because I do not 
want to be instrumental in fixing the value of the services of 
mv brother archite(;ts, nor do I allow others to fix the value of 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 11 

mine. Again, it costs at the present time to do such work 
nearly double what it did fifteen or twenty years ago, for the 
reason that builders have different methods at present from what 
they had years ago, and architects have to conform to and keep 
pace with the general improvement. I will say here, however, 
that the discount I shall make from the general price presup- 
poses that the drawings will be paid for within a reasonable 
time, say thirty days from delivery, for the margin of profit is 
too small to admit of unnecessary tardiness in paying for them. 
If, however, for any i-eason a school board is not prepared to 
pay as soon as this, other conditions or terms can be made. 

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF RUTTAN VENTILATION. 

When I commenced writing this pamphlet I intended to 
publish the details of the Ruttan Yentilation for the benefit 
of "all the world and the rest of mankind ;" in other words, 
intended to give a clear and succinct demonsti'ation and illus- 
tration of What I Know about Yentilation, but circum- 
stances and the advice of friends have modified my intentions, 
and hence I now propose to state the general peinciples 
only, mainly for the benefit of School Boards and non-profes- 
sional men, who, it is hoped, will be better clients as they 
come to understand what they need by way of ventilation in 
their school buildings, and by way of helping the profession- 
als to understand how to apply the details of this system of 
ventilation correctly. I shall, at no distant day, publish what 
I already have in manuscript, a complete elucidation and illus- 
tration of the Ruttan System in all its details, and a complete 
explanation of the application of the same to school buildings 
generally. The pamphlet referred to will be made to sell, 
and, though the price is not definitely fixed, it will be two to 
three dollars, more or less. The writer of this claims to have 
aided the successors of Mr. Ruttan in improving his system of 
ventilation in some or most of its essential details, and in 
eliminating from it some of its most crude and impracticable 
features with which it was encumbered when he left it. All 



I'J BOOK OK DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

these things will have their place in the forthcoming book 
mentioned. 

PRINCIPLES OF RITTTAN VENTILATION. 

The leading feature of the Rattan System of Ventilation is 
to introduce the warm air into the room through the floor or 
somewhere between the floor and ceiling, and exhaust it out 
of the room through the floor or through a perforated base, 
from whence in ])a.ssing out of the room it goes under the floor 
between the joists, which are raised on top by cross-furring 
them u]>, thus enabling the air as it passes from the room to 
move in any and every direction, crosswise as well as between 
the joists; and at some point under the floor it is taken down 
to the cellar in a flue or flues, where it is connected with an 
exhaust flue that takes this foul- air up and out of the building. 
This is sometimes designated as the downward exhaust prin- 
ciple. At other times it is taken from under the floor directly 
into an upward exhaust flue out of the building above the 
roof. This is regarded at present as the best practice, but 
this is Ruttan improved. 

HOW IT WORKS. 

The fresh warm air coming into the room at any point rises 
at once to the ceiling, and s])reads out in a level zone under 
the same. As this air flows into the room the exhaustion at 
the base commences and so long as the warm air is kept flow- 
ing the ventilation goes on automatically without cessation. 

An essential advantage of this kind of ventilation is that 
the warm air always at the upper })art of the room is continu- 
ally drawn by this exhaustive; power fVoin the middle and upper 
part, t()\vai-(l the outside ])eriphery and iloor of the room where 
the cold from the windows and wall surfaces is continually cool- 
ing the air by contact with these exposed surfaces, and then 
falling to the floor, if not at once taken out of the room through 
this perforated base, would slide along on its surface, forming 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 13 

a zone of cold air around the children's feet. There is a double 
advantage in this, that the warm air is continually drawn 
toward the coldest part of the room, where it is most needed, 
while the coldest air in the room is drawn out as continually 
from a part of the room where it is least needed. 

It is often practiced by men who know but little about ven- 
tilating to let the warm air into the room by a flue or rather 
register in the floor or through a register just above the. base 
and then exhaust it out of the room via a register near opening 
into a flue somewhere in the room. I hardly need inform any 
intelligent man that this is not the way to ventilate a room 
satisfactorily, nor is this way of doing it, Ruttan Yentilation. 
It will only change the air a little in the middle of the room 
through the agency of a rotary current produced by the move- 
ment of the air going in and coming out and it is almost cer- 
tain to keep the air from being changed in remote parts of the 
room, and certain to keep the cold places remote from this 
moving current in an uncomfortable condition all the time. 

Mr. Ruttan's theory was to take the cold and foul air out at 
the floor or near it in small jets, so small that scholars sitting 
in the vicinity would not have their feet and legs chilled by 
the moving currents. There are some architects who exhaust 
the cold air out of a room by setting registers in the floor, with 
exhausting ducts between the joists leading to the outlets. 
This too, is wrong for the reasons just given, that the currents 
of air moving from every direction on or above the surface of 
the floor toward these exhausting registers would soon make 
the feet too uncomfortable to be tolerated. In a school room 
artificially warmed and ventilated, every care should be taken 
to get the fresh air into, and the cold and foul air out of a room 
with the least possible amount of air currents that would strike 
any portion of the body. 

There is another part of this process of getting fresh air in 
and foul air out of the room that mystifies people sometimes, 
that I will endeavor to explain. Persons sitting in the fresh 
air at every respiration vitiate a portion of the air by throwing 
off from the lungs a portion of carbonic dioxyde, or acid, a 



14 BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

poisonous gas thiit immediately mixes witli the fresh air; hence 
tlie latter soon becomes overcharged with it, so that it becomes 
foul and unfit for respiration. Now this difficulty is gotten 
over by diluting the bad air by the introduction of a large 
volume of moderately warm air into the room, and this dilu- 
tion is kept steadily going on as it necessarily must, and in this 
wav the air in the room is kept in a condition for respiration. 

Keep this one thing in perpetual remembrance whatever 
system of ventilating you are using, that ventilation is al- 
ways AT THE EXPENSE OF UEAT, and probably the expense in 
this system, as compared with others, is a rainirawm. 

It is claimed by some that the carbonic acid (dioxyde) 
gas, being so much heavier than common air, at once falls to 
the floor at every expiration, and that an advantage of the 
Ruttan ventilation is tliat, going to the floor, it at once passes 
out of the room witliout mixing with the pure air we breathe. 
It is pleasant to tltlnk this, if it be so, but when, at every expi- 
ration, we throw oft' this gas warmed to blood heat, it may be 
a question whether, instead of falling to the floor, it may not 
be light enough to obey the law of the "diftusion of gases," 
which o]ierates without much reference to their condition as to 
temperatures. 

Observation, however, has satisfied me that this gas in a 
cold state falls to the floor, but when thrown oft' from the lungs 
in a rarefied condition, or when it is the product of combustion, 
it will in this highly rarefied condition rise upward toward the 
ceiling, but when the room is allowed to cool it becomes heavy 
again by condensation and falls to the floor. 

A KOOM MUST BE HEATEU WITH WARM AIR IF WE WOULD 
VENTILATE IT. 

It is no unusual thing for a School Board, for the sake of 
economy, to order plans made for a house to be heated by 
stoves, but they "want good ventilation." Let us investigate 
this matter a little. A room to be ventilated must have its 
air warmed before it comes into the room. This is called in- 
direct radiation. The heat from a stove radiates to the sur- 
roimding objects, and will only radiate its heat in this way 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 15 

when there is no intervening object between the radiator and 
the object to be heated. A slight percentage of heat is thus 
imparted to the atmosphere through which the ethereal waves 
pass that produce the heat. Thus we see that heating with 
stoves, as with coils of steam pipes set in the room to be 
heated, is to heat the air, whether pure or already fouled, 
over and over again, but this produces no ventilation. To 
produce ventilation, as has already been said, pure warni air 
must come into the room as the cold or foul air goes out. 

Hence with stove-heating, or heating with ordinary steam 
coils in the room, no ventilation can be had save any such as 
would be produced by the ordinary defects in the windows 
and doors, and leakages of this kind are very bad ventilation. 
Air in cold weather should never be allowed to come into a 
room in this way. It finds its way by its gravity to the floor, 
over which it spreads in a zone, and no room can be comfort- 
able where such a condition of things exists. 

As a general rule, in arranging the hot aie flues for a school 
room I aim to have their capacity a little in excess of that of 
the exhaust. In this way we get a gentle pressure in the room, 
which operates to keep the wind from driving into the cracks 
and crevices — the result of imperfect mechanical work in the 
construction of the room. 



16 BOOK OF DK^SIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

MODE OF HEATING. 

To produce satisfactory ventilation does not, as some 
people suppose, require any particular method of generating 
heat. This may be done by the use of hot-air furnaces or by 
steam coils, as shall best suit the circumstances. A compli- 
cated building, like that of the St. Paul High School, for 
instance, on tiiese pages, is best heated through the aid of 
steam pipes, but a simple ward school house, with its school 
rooms one above another, can be heated as well by furnaces as 
with hot-air coils, and the same arrangement that will answer 
for one will be right for the other, as I construct such buildings. 

And here comes in the place where School Boards, unless 
they consult a competent architect, are certain to get misled 
in determining what heating apparatus they will use, for 
remember I have explained that to ventilate successfully 
requires a large volume ot warm air. It is seldom that a fur- 
nace can be found that will furnisji this air in sufficient quan- 
tity to both heat and ventilate. A heating engineer may pro- 
vide just the amount of heat and volume of air to heat the 
room to the proper temperature, and still twice this amount 
may, and probably will, be necessary to heat and VENTI- 
LATE the room, for however well the rooms may be provided 
with ventilating apparatus, they will not ventilate if they do 
not have capacity to furnish the requisite quantity of warm air 
and keep it passing through the room in a proper manner. 

Many have been the failures in attempting to ventilate these 
buildings, because School Boards, as well as the architects 
they employed, were ignorant ot this one fact. There are a 
great many furnaces the venders of which will em])hatically 
declare that they are amply sufficient to do the work, and when 
it comes to trial, if they succeed in heating the building, the 
Boards are easily jiersifaded that the heating contractor has 
tille<l his contract, ainl afterward, if the building does not ven- 
tilate, they console themselves with the retiection that they 
have done their duty, but that the architect has failed to do 
what they e.\])ected of him, viz: to ventilate the building. 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. l7 

SUB-EARTH VENTILATION. 

Having explained substantially the principles on which 
Ruttan ventilation is founded, I propose to introduce here a 
subject that is probably new to most of my readers, though I 
published in the "Chicago Tribune," in the month of May, 
1874, a full description of one of these ducts, then in use near 
Harvard, 111. 

They consist of a duct or tunnel built under ground by 
turning an arch of light rubble stone, making this arch of a 
form approaching that of a semicircle, but it should take the 
best form for strength considering the nature of the soil where 
it is built and other things that might affect it. 

These ducts are best laid at a depth in the earth that is 
called the neutral point, that is to say, a point not affected by 
the rays from the sun in the summer nor the earth's internal 
heat in the winter, and this depth in some countries — Eng- 
land, for instance — is said to be about twenty feet below the 
surface. Practically, however, I suppose from eight to ten 
feet under the surface will do pretty well. 

We will suppose we are ventilating a School House 
through such a duct as the working inlet for fresh air. Its 
maximum effect is best attained when the duct is good length, 
and if the reader wants to know what we call good length I 
will say 400 to 600 feet long, but I have never seen one more 
than 180 feet, and that a small one of about a square foot of 
cross section. But a longer one would bear a cross sectional 
area of eight or ten feet or more. All these dimensions have 
to be proportioned to the work they are expected to do. 

Having determined the dimensions, it is to be set in the 
earth so that the discharging end will be under the building, 
and where it can easily be connected with the fresh air cham- 
ber or chambers that are to feed the furnace or rooms to be 
ventilated. Extend the duct to such length as circumstances 
will warrant, and then, at what we will call the inlet end, con- 
struct an air shaft of like area with the duct, and this may be 
built up from the duct in the ground to some few feet above 



18 BOOK ol DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

the gr»»uiHl. and should be constructed with an injecting, 
revolving cowl. This done, the tunnel-shaft will be con- 
structed of stone, as the best material for conducting lieat. If 
stone cannot be had, brick will do very well, though the con- 
ducting power of brick and stone are abcnit as 5 to 15 or 16. 
Of course, then, stone is the best of these two materials, but 
tor that matter iron is much better than either, on account of 
its superior conducting power. 

In the construction of tliese ducts it is claimed that only 
the arch, if the cover be an arch, should be stone, but that'the 
lower side of it should be surfaced with a dressing of clean 
clay, on account of that property in clay that takes all impuri- 
'ties out of the air that comes in contact with it; in other 
words, its quality of absorbing all deleterious gases, etc. If 
the de])th of earth above our duct is not too heavy it may be 
covered by two stone flags in a triangular form, or set sloping 
like the two sides of a roof, with the clay surfacing across the 
bottom or third side of the triangle. When the ma^on-work is 
built the ditch above the duct should be filled in to the surface, 
or above, with earth well packed. 

The largest one of these ducts of which I have any knowl- 
edge is at Muscatine, Iowa. It is several hundred feet — 
I have forgotten whether 400 or 600 feet — long, is built of 
brick, and is large enough in its sectional area for two men to 
walk abreast through it. 

Having gotten the thing built, as we think, on scientific 
principles, let us examine its working and study its effect. 

Such a duct will not only help to cool our building in the 
summer, but will aid materially in warming it in the winter. 
And how is this to be accomplished? IIow shall we extract 
heat from the earth that shall iin])art its warmth to the air 
passing through it in the winter, but cool it in the summer? 

At this writing I have not the exact data on which to base 
the effects i^roduced by passing air through a duct such as we 
are contemj)lating, but we will note the elfects of passing it 
through one I have seen in use and noted its effects. The one 
I refer to is the one near Harvard. 111., and is (or was when I 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOE SCHOOL HOUSES. 19 

examined it) owned and used by Mr. Charles W. Sylvester. It 
was 180 feet long, with a cross section of less than a square foot, 
and was laid seven feet below the surface of the ground. I vis- 
ited and examined this duct in the forenoon of May 20, 1876. 
On that day at 9:30 o'clock the thermometric indication out- 
doors, or at the inlet end of the duct, was 78°, and it entered 
the cellar at 48° Fah. Mr. Sylvester assured me that this duct 
had never delivered the air into his cellar at less than 40° above 
when the outside temperature was at 26° below zero ; hence 
the temperature of the air was raised 66° by absorption in 
passing through this duct, by the internal heat from the earth. 
This absorption, it will be understood, is greatest when the 
covering of the duct is a material that is a good conductor of 
heat. 

I have found by inquiry that air ducts of proper length and 
depth deliver air at about 50° above, at all times, regardless of 
the extremes of the out-door temperature. 

Mr. Sylvester stated that he had always been obliged to 
bank the walls of his house, but after using sub-earth ventila- 
tion two winters he concluded that the duct was capable of 
warming not only his entire cellar but the house as well ; so 
last winter he omitted the banking and allowed the duct air to 
circulate throughout the cellar. He found that the tempera- 
ture never got below 40°, and that it made a great saving of 
fuel in the house. 

Let us endeavor to make a practical application of the 
principle of this sub-earfh ventilation to the heating and ven- 
tilating of a schoolhouse, and we' shall see that the principles 
involved will apply to every kind of a building necessary in a 
civilized community. 

We will suppose that in our school building the ari'ange- 
ments for heating and ventilating are such as a scientific 
engineer would approve, and we want to give the several 
schools the benefit of sub-earth ventilation. The first thing to 
be done is to double the windows, and generally to make the 
room as close and tight as possible. This is substantially all 
the change that will be required in the building itself. 



20 BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

Then we construct the air duct of the proper size, form and 
length, and connect it in a proper manner with the several 
rooms to be ventilated. Xo expense whatever is incurred in 
the use of it, except a fire in a small stove in the exhaust shaft 
in the summer. 

In this way, when the temperature is 100° in the shade out- 
side it will be toned down inside to any comfortable tempera- 
ture from 60° to 70°, and much lower if desirable. 

For winter ventilation this air entering the sub-earth venti- 
lating duct at zero, or even at 40° below, will be delivered 
from the duct at about 50° above, it having absorbed heat 
from the surface of the duct, so that in case the outside tem- 
perature is 40° below, air transmitted by the duct will be 
warmed 90°, and will only require to be heated by artificial 
means 20° to bring it to 70°. 

The warm natural air, as it enters the duct and passes along 
through it, is cooled down to about 50°, and is thereby made 
to precipitate its moisture on the walls and bottom of the duct, 
so that when it enters the room it is thoroughly divested, not 
only ot its moisture, but the deleterious gases are absorbed by 
contact with the earth, and it is then in a condition for respira- 
tion. For the cellar of a dwelling, for preserving vegetables, 
meats, and other substances from decay, such as has given the 
climate of Colorado and the Pacific Slope a world-wide reputa- 
tion for tlie purity and life-giving quality of its atmosphere, it 
is unequaled. Milk will remain in such an atmosphere long 
enough for all the cream to rise before it sours, and in this 
Sylvester duct the black iron pipe, through which the air 
passes from the duct into the room, is not damp nor corroded 
in the least, so completely is the air divested of its moisture in 
passing through this duct. Admitting, then, these facts, who 
can doubt for a moment that it is such an atmosphere as we 
ought to breathe in our houses,, and, above all things, in our 
sleeping rooms, where we spend one-third of our lives ? How 
many are there in this city of Chicago, who spend money for 
palatial residences and ostentatious show, but who, perhaps 
through ignorance of even the existence of such a contrivance 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 21 

as a sub-earth air duct, de]3rive themselves of one of the great- 
est hixuries, which they might have at a moderate expense, 
that has ever been vouchsafed to man. 

To state another case, suppose the temperature outside to 
be 10° above zero. The air can be introduced through such a 
duct to the building at about 50° above. 'Now, in this case, 
we draw from the earth 40° in 60° of the heat necessary for 
supplying our school rooms, and furnish the balance, or 20°, 
by the combustion of fuel. By this it will be seen that we 
save two-thirds the fuel by utilizing the heat stored up in the 
earth, and this saving will, in a brief time, compensate for all 
the expense in constructing the duct. Let no one who reads 
this suppose that the ventilation in buildings in the manner 
here described is something chimerical, or that it is impracti- 
cable in its execution. It is in use in various ways, I think, in 
some fourteen States of the Union, and in all cases, where skill- 
fully constructed, is giving the best of satisfaction. It is one 
of those invaluable improvements that is, perhaps, in advance 
of the age, but it will slowly and surely find its way into gen- 
eral use. When this shall be the case, families will find it 
much cheaper to furnish, through the agency of a sub-earth 
duct, the pure air necessary to health and comfort at horroe 
than to go 1,000 or 2,000 miles away to find it. 

It will readily be seen that this sub-earth ventilation would 
be of the greatest value and economy in connection with all 
asylums, hospitals, etc. 

In constructing these ducts it will not do to lay them where 
they will fill with water. If they are to be used in buildings 
built on small lots, the necessary length of duct may be 
obtained by running them back and forth, or in any direction, 
on the lot, to suit convenience, and, if the soil will allow of it, 
they may be laid under the buildings. 

I have thus attempted to describe what I think is one of 
the most valuable discoveries of the age, and to those who 
have known me favorably for the past twenty odd years as an 
architect and ventilating engineer, I have no hesitancy in say- 
ing that this is one of the most valuable acquisitions to our 



•22 BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

store of knowledge in the science of vetitilation that lias come 
under my observation. 

Thus we find that a sub-earth air duct is useful in winter in 
warming the air by the absorption of heat from the bowels of 
mother earth, instead of producing it in the ordinary way, and 
equally useful in cooling down the atmosphere in whicli we 
"live, move and have our being" in the summer season. It 
has been said that the owner of one of these ducts — a large 
one — offered a wager of $1,000 that he would bang fresh meat 
in the air that passed through his duct for the space of ninety 
days in dog days, and at the expiration of that time it would 
not be tainted. It is also a well-kn(nvn fact that years ago, 
when pioneers to the Pacific slope were crossing the plains, 
they could preserve their fresh meat by nailing it to a tree or 
their wagons, and that the atmosphere in those regions was so 
dry that not only was their fresh meat thus preserved, but at 
nightfall they could with entire safety make their bed on the 
bare earth, with only the canopy of heaven for a covering, so 
dry was the atmosphere. Now, it is this kind of dry atmos- 
phere which man and woman kind ought to breathe by night 
and by day. It is in accord with natural law that warm air 
carries a larger quantity of vapor or moisture than cold air can 
carry, and if the warm air of summer enters the duct at a tem- 
perature of 90 or 100 degrees, as soon as it enters the duct it 
commences to radiate its heat to the covering of the duct, by 
which it is absorbed and transmitted to the surrounding earth 
by convection, and thus its heat is dissi])ated and absorbed by 
the cooler earth. In winter, as I have already explained, this 
process is reversed, and the heat already stored in the earth 
by the operation of the sun's rays in summer, and its own 
internal heat, unite to sup])ly the complement of heat for use 
in winter. Thus nature is ever ready to lend a hel])ing hand 
to those who use their brains as well as their hands in pro- 
curing the comforts of life. 

If in the constructioTi of one of these ducts, and it is for 
the ventilation of a dwelling, it will be fortunate if the grounds 
on one side of the building be more elevated than that which 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 28 

is the immediate site of the building, wherein the duct can be 
buried, or, what is better still, if there is a hill near the building, 
up which the duct can be laid. For summer ventilation, the 
air cooled in the duct will gravitate toward the building, and 
its gravitating force would, without other process, raise the air 
to all the rooms in the building that are not above the inlet 
end of the duct, on the same principle that water will find its 
level in a building witli the source of supply, when conducted 
there through pipes. There are, however, other methods of 
raising air from the duct to the upper rooms, that are effectual 
when properly used. These I shall not attempt to explain in 
detail, as the extent and the character of the building would 
have to be considered in doing it. 



There are other systems or methods that are good in their 
places, and one that I have in mind that is especially well 
adapted to church ventilation, but it is not adapted to the ven- 
tilation of school buildings. For the latter I regard only the 
Kuttan system as being of practical use, and in saying this, I 
would not mean specially to indorse the Ruttan system of 
HEATING, though no room can be properly ventilated that is not 
furnished with a large volume of moderately warmed air, 
WHICH THE Rtjttan FURNACE WILL DO, and tliis may be done 
also by steam coils, or in any other manner that will accom- 
plish the object; but I do say that it cannot be done by the 
agency of any Pot furnace that I ever saw or heard of, and the 
Ruttan furnace, so called, will do it. It was gotten up for 
this special purpose. In each individual case that shall be 
referred to me, I will give my opinion of its and their relative 
merits as compared with other methods. It is not of such 
great importance whether ste^tm coils or furnaces are used as a 
medium for extracting the heat as to have an apparatus that 
has ample power for radiating heat. 

Ordinarily, if steam is used for the heating of a school 
room, it should be by indirect radiation, with a small amount 
of pipe or coils set in the window recesses, to counteract the 
effect of cooling at these points in extreme cold weather only. 



24 BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

The plans, as I make them, and the arrangement of flues, 
are the same for eitlier method, but it slioukl always be deter- 
mined in advance which method is to be adopted, because 
there are details and the speciflcations that should always be 
made for either one or the other, whichever is to be used, if 
we would save extra work. 

HOLLOW WALLS IN BUILDINGS. 

now TIIKY SHOULD UK CONSTRUCTED. 

A salubrious and comfortable atmosphere in winter is best 
attained when houses are so constructed that they can be heated 
with the least possible amount of artificial heat. 

I will premise that every building that is to be kept cool in 
summer and warm in winter should be provided with double 
windows. This is"" of the utmost importance. No building can 
be made thoroughly comfortable without these important ap- 
pendages. The next great desideratum is to so construct walls 
as to prevent as far as possible the convection of heat through 
them. To this end it is essential that we use such material as 
has the least conducting power ; hence the importance of our 
understanding the relative conductivity of the different materials 
used. Nearly all first-class buildings have their walls of stone, 
brick and mortar. The cheaper buildings, such as dwellings 
of a moderatel}-^ expensive kind, are usually built of wood, and 
there is perhaps no class of buildings in which we live in the 
construction of which there is a necessity for so thorough a 
knowledge of how to build as. in this class of houses. 

The relative conducting power of the different building 
materials is as follows: 

Stone .^ 14 to IG 

Brick .' 5 

Plaster 4 

Wood — less Hum 1 

Wood, therefore, is the best material named; but woolen 
felt is now jinich used in place of wood, and is probably better 
for many i»uri)oses. 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. ZD 

Various considerations, however, may govern our choice 
and necessitate the use of stone or brick. When this is the 
case, it is an excellent method to fur the walls inside with ordi- 
nary furring strips, then sheathe or cover them with this woolen 
felt, and against the face of each furring, and over the felt, fur 
again for lath and plaster. This is an interposition of what we 
have shown to be a comparatively good non-conductor, and, 
with an air-chamber on each side of it, — between the brick and 
the wood on the one hand and the lath and plaster on the other, 
— it is perhaps the best method of preventing convection of 
heat through walls. Hollow brick walls are sometimes resorted 
to, but if the two sections of the walls are so completely sep- 
arated as to entirely break the continuity of the brick the walls 
are weakened. It is a popular error that a wide space or air- 
chamber in a hollow wall is better than a narrow one. This 
error is founded entirely on a misconception of what heat is, 
and how it travels through space. 

For the purpose of making our demonstrations as clear as 
practicable, we will assume that the material of our building is 
chiefly wood, and that it is desirable to prevent the convection 
of heat as much as possible. For the illustration of a principle, 
and without reference to stability of construction, we will sup- 
pose our wall to be made of a series of close board partitions 
set a little distance apart to produce chambers for " dead air." 
We shall endeavor to show that these chambers will be equally 
efficient as non-conductors whether they be one or ten inches 
in width, and for convenience of reference we will number the 
partitions separating these chambers one, two, three, etc. 

A beam of rays from the sun is simply a collection of 
ethereal waves flying through space with a velocity that far 
outstrips the lightning, and so long as these waves are allowed 
to continue on in their journey uninterruptedly there is no more 
heat in them than in the icy regions at the poles; but when they 
impinge on our bodies, through the medium of our nerves and 
brain, they produce the sensation of heat. If they impinge on 
the retina of the eye, they produce the sensation of light. 

Kow, we will suppose that a beam of these rays, or ether 



26 BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

waves, shall impinge on tlie exterior of our imaginary house, 
witli its board walls and air-chambers. If it strikes the out- 
side board, or partition number one, in a direction perpendicu- 
lar to the ]>lane of the board, a much greater ])ortion of the 
beam will be absorbed and transmitted tlian if it impinge upon 
the board obliquely, but in either case a portion of the beam — 
depending upon its angle of incidence — will be absorbed and 
transmitted in accordance with the laws of convection, and the 
remainder will be reflected back into si)ace, or to the surround- 
ing objects, in accordance with the laws of reflection. 

When this beam has impinged upon the surface of this par- 
tition number one, that portion of the beam that is absorbed 
enters among the molecules of the wood, and sets them in 
active motion, one against another, and now, for the first time, 
our rays become heat. Before they impinge on the wood they 
are simply motion — a wave in the ether, similar to a wave on 
the surface of water, and these waves tliat are reflected oflp con- 
tinue as motion, and are only changed into heat when they find 
a lodgment in some material substance. 

We have now advanced to that point in our demonstration 
where we have our ethereal waves absorbed in the first surface 
(jf the first partition from which it is transmitted from molecule 
to molecule until the heat has found its way through the second 
surface of board number one, and this transmission is techni- 
cally called convection. At this second surface the heat is 
again changed into ethereal motion, and, again taking the form 
of a wave, it jumps across the intervening space to the first sur- 
face of the second partition. I have said that the distance 
across this air-space makes no sensible difference in regard to 
the transmission of heat, and for this reason, that it travels 
through its medium, the ether, at the rate of nearly 190,000 
miles per second, hence, practically, the difi'erence of a few 
inclies, or feet even, is unimportant. 

We take our beam where we left it at the first surface 
of the second partition, but we find only part of it, for a con- 
siderable portion was reflected back from the first surface of 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 27 

the first partition and lost. It is, however, sufficient for our 
present purpose to know that it has not entered the building. 

Our beam, or what is left of it, has been absorbed and again 
changed to molecular motion, — that is to say, heat, — and 
another part of it reflected back to the first partition, where it 
is again reflected in part, and the remainder is absorbed, and 
transmitted by convection to the first surface of the first board, 
and sent back into space as ether waves. That portion which 
has been absorbed by partition number two will be transmitted 
through this partition by convection, as through the first par- 
tition, and so this process goes on from partition to partition, 
until, if there be enough of them, the whole beam will be 
turned back and dissipated, and no sensible amount of heat 
will get into the building. 

If walls of brick, stone, iron, or other material are used 
that have a greater power for absorbing these waves and con- 
verting them into heat, a smaller portion of the waves will be 
reflected back each time, and a proportionately greater number 
of compartment partitions will be required. 

It has been claimed that the wider air-chamber is preferable 
to the narrower one, for the reason that the ray of heat emerg- 
ing from a given point divei'ges, and that its intensitj'- at the 
next surface on which it falls is inversely as the square of the 
distance. We admit the correctness of this principle, but we 
should not overlook the fact that the entire second surface of 
our partition, instead of giving offbeat waves at a single point, 
is emitting them at every point on its surface, and each and all 
of these diverging rays are crossing and overlapping each 
other, so that in fact the same amount of heat that leaves the 
first reaches the second partition, diminished only by a small 
absorption of these rays by the vapor in the air-chamber, which 
is quite too small to be considered in the general result. 

The advantages to be derived from a thorough understand- 
ing and a skillful application of these principles in the construc- 
tion of compartment walls by which to prevent the transmis- 
sion of heat through them, are very great. 



28 



BOOK OK DKSIGNS FOU SCHOOL HOUSES. 




Dl-.SKJN .\c>. 1. ( MoMtOK, W IS.) I'l.USl'Kl ri\ K 



BOOK OF DESIGTSrS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 29 

EXPLANATION OF THE CUTS. 

The cuts or floor plans, and their corresponding j)erspec- 
tive elevations, form a variety of designs from which School 
Boards may often select or iind a set that will meet their 
particular case. If they do not find such an one or one that is 
exactly right, if they can find one that is nearly so they can 




Design No. 1. First Floor. 

send it to me and have it modified till it will be right. It 
accompanied by an order for full drawings and specifications, 
or if such an order follows the making of such modifications, 
no charge will be made for this work beyond that of the regu- 
lar commissions that I charge for such work, or the standard 
commissions less the discount, as elsewhere explained. 



80 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



We will boi^iii this explanatir)n of plates with a six-room 
school housf now biiildiiii; at Monroe, Wis., at a cost of 
$13,8.51 exclusive of architect's fees and local superintendence. 
This Imildini; has six school rooms, lettered BBB on floor 
plans, three above and a like number on the first floor. D, 
on second flof)r, is a ])riiu'ij)ars ro<,m, or it may be used for a 




Design No. 1. Skcom) Fi.oou. 



recitation room, library or apparatus room, etc. If the latter, 
E is a case to keep the apparatus in. The outside walls of 
this buildiii<.^ are ])lain brick, with brick partitions in the base- 
ment and studded partitions in the flrst and second stories. 
The dimensions of the school rooms proper are 25x33 feet, 
calculated for sixty-four scholars in a room at double desks. 
The school rooms have each two closets, C, C, one for boys 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



31 




Design No. 3. Perspective. 



32 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL ITOUSES. 



and the other for girls, all finely lighted, and the school rooms 
will be finely ventilated if properly heated. They get this 
building erected at a minimum cost, and for the location it 
will be a good house if well built. It has no tower, belfry or 
bell. 




l)i:siGN No. 2. FiKST Fi.oou. 



This is a dosigu for what is e([uivalent to a five-room 
house intended for the village of Almont, Mich., but was not 
built on account of its expense. It was intended for a high 
school, and lias a large room, 15, on the second floor for the 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 33 

liigh school proper, wliicli room is larger than the others, and 
has a recitation room adjacent, with an apparatus closet, E, oif 
from it. It also has a principal's room, C, with the usual 
clothes closets for the sexes. It is provided with two rear 




Design No. 2. Second Floor. 

entrances also, for the purpose of separating the sexes as they 
go to the back yards. This house has its tower in front to the 
east ; also a side entrance fronting on a side street and looking 
toward the town. The room, C, on first floor, is for an oiRce 
for the meeting of the School Board. 
3 



34 



BOOK OF DESIGNH FOR SCHOOL nOUSES. 




UjisicjN No. 3. PEUSrECTivK. (Not built.) 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



35 



Owing to its unexpected cost, on account of an unusual cost 
of getting material on to the ground, there being then no rail- 
way facilities there, it was abandoned, and another design 
has since been made for it and adopted. By enlarging the 
board room and making a school room of it, and a school 
room of the recitation room over, it would be a first-rate six- 
room house. 




Design No. 3. First Fi.ook. 



3r, 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



Desipi Xo. 3 is for Ji four or six-room house, and may be 
built a four-room house at first and afterward have two more 
rooms at the rear, makiui; it a six-room house wlien complete. 




Design No. 3. Skconu Fi.ooh. 

It is a tliornu<z;hly good (k^sign for such an object. The part 
first built will extend back to and include the wall back of the 
stairway, with its hall, outside doors and their vestibules on each 
tlaiik. Tiic reader will observe that in all these designs the 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 37 

light is on the rear and left of the scholars, which at the pres- 
ent time is adjudged by educators to be the proper place for it. 
Fifteen years ago but little attention was given to such details. 

Observe also that at the outside doors of this and all the 
designs in this book the stairs are in part outside of the out- 
side door and the balance of them inside of this door or in the 
vestibule. This saves expense, because the steps outside of 
the outside door should be of stone, while those insdde or in 
the vestibule can as well be of wood. It would be better, on 
account of snow, ice and the broken heads scholars sometimes 
get falling on the arrises of the stone, if they could all be 
made of wood, but wood outside the building would not be 
desirable. 

This house has a little more expensive finish on the exte- 
rior than is necessary for a plain building, and it ought to be 
faced outside with a good quality of pressed brick. It would 
cost $16,000 to $18,000 for the six rooms complete. 

Any School Board that may be pleased with the interior 
arrangement can have a different elevation and a much plainer 
one, indeed a very plain one, made to fit. The most of the 
designs in this book are made to suit the peculiar ideas and 
financial conditions of some School Board, but can be modified 
to suit others. 

Design No. 4. 

This design is for a cheap brick house — cheap because it 
is not provided with all the apparatus for ventilation that a 
school house should have, etc. It is not arranged to have a 
cellar nor furnaces for heating, but has a good ventilating 
shaft, and if the rooms are kept warm they will ventilate to 
the extent of ejecting all the surplus air out of the rooms that 
gets into them from any source. This arrangement is the best 
and cheapest that can be made without the introduction of 
fresh warm air into the room for warming it. In other words, 
it is the best that can be made with direct heating, or heating 
by stoves. Otherwise than for its want of a correct system of 
heating to accompany its ventilation, it is a cheap house and 



38 



H<>OK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 




l)Kyi(!.N Mo. 4. I'KUM'i^crn !■;. 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



39 




Design No. 4. First Floor. 




Design No. 4. Second Floor. 



40 BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

all right. It has a central iiall, in wliich the scholars will 
hang their clothing, and from it a stairway to second story. 
It has two rear doors, one for each of the sexes, by which to 
go to their respective back yards, and a double entrance at the 
front. 

There is but one line stack, the large one in the center to 
be a ventilator, and the smoke Hues on each side for each of 
the rooms. In each story one of the tines will have to cross 
the hall. These smoke flues on either side of the ventilating 
flue will warm it and help to give it some current. 

The second floor is subdivided differently from the first, 
but can be made into two ordinary sized rooms, like the floor 
below, if desired, in which case the stairs would land in the 
main hall ; there would be a principal's or teacher's retiring 
room at the front, and the projection at the rear could be dis- 
pensed with if desirable. 

Such a house would probably be built for from §7,000 to 
$8,000, though it has not been estimated. 

Design No. 5. (Not built.) 

This design is for a two-room frame building and one story 
high, and by a good builder has been estimated to cost com- 
plete about $4,300. It is a very cheap building, and, as I 
think, a very neat and tasteful one. The arrangement inside 
is simple. B B are school rooms, A the hall, along the sides 
of which, and the low partition inclosing the stairway to cellar, 
the children can hang their clothing. There are two rear 
doors, one for either sex, and the stairway outside these rear 
doors and the doors should be separated by a high and close 
board partition that should lead to and separate the privies at 
the rear in like manner. 

From the- stairs along each side of this fence should be 
walks leading to the privies, and to make this part complete 
these walks may be covered and inclosed on the outside with 
lattice, so as to partially screen the scholars as they go to and 
from. The fence, walks and privies are not included in the 
estimate named above. • 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



41 




Design No. 5. Perspective. 



4 '2 



BOOK OK DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



A slight modification of it would allow of another and 
third room to be built at the rear, thereby making of it a 
three-room house. 

At the rear end of the hall is a ventilating flue that will 
ventilate both rooms, the warm fresli air entering the rooms 
through the registers in the floors and near the teacher's plat- 
forms, D D. 




Dekign No. 5. F'looii Pi-an. 

In the hall, in front of the ventilating and smoke flues, is a 
drum. The building is supposed to be heated by a furnace in 
the cellar, the smoke pipe from which would come up through 
the floor and into the lower end of the drum, and be continued 
from the top of the drum up and turn into the small tine in the 
stack, which is the smoke flue. In this way the hall would be 
nicely warmed with the waste heat from the furnace. A nicer 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 43 

arrangement than this could hardly be conceived for a small 
school house, and when we take into account the extreme in- 
expensiveness of the building — but a little over $2,000 per 
school room — and the exterior neatness of the building, 
which can always much excel that of a plain brick building, it 
seems strange to me that School Boards do not oftener build 
of wood instead of brick. In the manner in which I should 
build this house it would be quite as warm and substantial as 
a brick building. The chief diiference between the two mate- 
rials would be that a frame building must be kept painted, 
and this involves some expense, but the interest on the differ- 
ence of cost of brick more than of wood would keep the frame 
building well painted. If built of brick the details of the exte- 
rior would have to be changed some, but generally the aspect 
of the building could be kept about the same as this. An- 
other room on the back side would not injure the appearance 
of the building at all, whether of wood or brick, but would 
rather improve it. With a sufficient depth of lot two rooms 
might be added to it, thus making a four-room house, and all 
on the ground floor, with no stairs to climb, which are the 
bane of our modern school houses. 

There is at the present time a decided leaning toward the 
construction of school buildings of one story, and it is very 
seldom at the present time that I get an order for plans for a 
house more than two stories in height. School sites are not 
so scarce in this vast country as to make it necessary to con- 
struct a building to exceed two stories in height. 

The general opinion that a large building must necessarily 
look low and " squatty " if but a single story in height, is a 
mistaken one. And even if this were the case we cannot 
afford to sacrifice our children — the health of our daughters 
— in running them up and down stairs to get to and from 
their school rooms. 



44 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 




OKsKiN >;<>. G. (.Mauinkti i;, Wis.) PEHsri-XTn k. 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



45 



This is a high-school building at Marinette, Wis., not yet 
quite complete inside, but it will cost about $21,000 when 
finished. The floor plans show very plainly the interior ar- 
rangement of the rooms, which are about the usual size and 
all finely ventilated through a main ventilating shaft on the 





" m B III ^ \— 



ff 


1 ■ 1 

■ ■ • 


- 


F 
















p \ 












1 ' 




Design No. 6. First Fi^oor. 

south front. Its main front is to the north, looking toward 
the Menominee River and toward the village of Menominee on 
the other side of the river. 

This building is a frame covered with boards set diagonally 
and then veneered with brick outside the boarding, so that it 
has the appearance of a brick building. 



46 BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

Tliere are wardrobes for botli sexes attached to each school 
room. Adjacent to the principaPs room on the second floor 
tliere is a room marked D, that is the principal's j^riva^e room, 
and which may be used for library, apparatus room, or even a 




Design No. G. Second Fi.oou. 

recitation room, if one shall be needed. Its foundations are 
laid well of rubble stone and in cement mortar, and the cellar 
floor is of coTicrete, as in all the school houses I build. 

Design No. 7. (Dodgeville, Wis.) 
This is a high-school building designed for and built at 
Dodgeville, Wis., at a cost, as nearly as I recollect, of about 
$20,000. 



BOOK OF DESiaNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



47 




Design No. 7. Dodgeville, Wis. Perspective. 



4S 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



One peculiarity will be observed in the interior arrange- 
ment of this house, that the wardrobes, instead of being small 
rooms, as in most of the others, are simply a series of boxes 
on each side of the teacher's dais and the Hue stacks, which 
boxes are about 2x2 feet square, made up with board parti- 
tions of narrow matched boards, at the back, overhead and 
underfoot, the floor being raised one step of about seven 
inches above the main floor. On each side and the back of 




Design No. 7. Fiust Floor. 



these there are three to five strong iron " school house '■ hooks, 
on which the children hang their clothes. Each closet is 
about five and a half feet high, and covered with a neat panel 
door in froTit witli ])roper fastenings. These closets are so 
situated as to be under the immediate control and view of 
teacher and sch<»lars all the timi", hence trumps and other out- 
siders cannot get in to steal the clothing, nor can there be 
much disorderly conduct among the vicious boys and girls, if 
there ixn' such. 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



49 



On the second floor there is the liigh-school room proper, 
B, which is considerably larger than the other rooms in the 
building, and off from and adjacent to this is a recitation room, 
E, and connected with them are the girls' dressing room, F, 
and-bojs' dressing room, G. There is also the room D for an 
apparatus room, museum, etc. The principal's office and 
teacher's retiring room is marked H. Together it is thought 




Design No. 7. Second Floor. 



to be a very fine arrangement for the High School Depart- 
ment in a building like this, and worthy of being duplicated 
by others. 

It has two flights of stairs from first to second floors, which 
are very easy, as are all stairs that I design for such buildings, 
making the "rise" generally six inches, while the "run," as 
it is called (the measure on the strings or horse), is seldom 



50 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 




Dkskjn No. 8. (Piioi'iiKTSTowN.) Perspective. 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 51 




Design No. 8. First Floor. 




Design No. 8. Second Floor. 



52 BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

less than twelve inches. Young scholars — girls in the years 
of their greatest danger to future health, or approaching their 
teens — can go up such stairs without injury, and aged people 
can get up such stairs with small eftort, but this is a part of 
these buildings tliat seldom has the consideration due to its 
importance. 

Design No. 8. (Proplictstown.) 

This is a four-room school house, two rooms above and two 
below. A glance at the plans will show that it has a central 
hall from the front to the back doors. At the rear it will be 
noticed that there are three outside doors, one of' which opens 
to the cellar stairway for the special use of getting fuel and 
ashes in and out, etc. The short flight of stairs leads down to 
the outside doors, where the sexes divide and each goes to his 
or her back yard, which is divided by a board fence as shown. 

There is an attic stair by the side of the teacher's retiring 
or principal's room indicated by the letter C. D D are dress- 
ing rooms. This house was designed for a plain, tidy and 
inexpensive building, and its cost was not far from SlO,000. 

At first the contract was let with the bell, inside blinds and 
perhaps the concrete floor in cellar omitted, and for $7,800, 
but I think that after getting all these things in it came very 
nearly to $10,000 ; at least it ought to have cost that much. 
But it is a good house, and a very popular one with school 
men. 

Design No. 9. (Petersburg, 111.) 

This is a design that can be built first with four rooms ; 
secondly with six rooms, and, if still more are needed, two 
more rooms can be added in the vacant corner on the back side, 
thus starting with four and ending with an eight-room house. 
This manner of building in sections will especially fit the 
convenience of School Boards in a growing community, and 
where the groioimj propensity more than keeps pace with the 
finances. 

As shown in the perspective elevation it is a very fine- 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



.).> 




Design No. 9. (Peteksburg, III.) Perspective, 



54 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



looking design, and moderately cheap. If a similar arrange- 
ment of plans, with a more simple exterior design, like No. 8, 
for instance, would suit better, it can be made. The object in 
cutting through the main cornice for the windows was to save 
expense of four or five feet of wall, and consequently a corre- 
sponding amount of waste room in the attic is saved by doing 




Dksign No. 9. FiusT Floor. 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



Di) 



it, nevertheless the economy is not great because it increases 
the work in the roof. It, however, makes a more picturesque 
appearance outside. It can be worked either way in making 
plans for it. 

The main front east, with side entrance on the south, is the 
best as to frontage. 




Design No. 9. Second Floor. 



58 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 




Di.sKi.N iS'o. 10. (Mavwikih, 1 I.I... iiol yd Imill.) PKUsiMarn !•;. 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



57 



This is now building at Petersburg, 111., as a four-room 
house, omitting the rear rooms, hall and stairway, so as to 
include just the simple parallelogram, for $11,600, exclusive 
of heating, which costs a little over $500 more. Had the six 
rooms been built it would have cost about $17,000. 




Besign No. 10. First Flook. 



C C are clothes closets. If liked better these closets 
can be small, like No. 7, or they can be like either of the 
others without any serious modification of the plans. For a 
good six-room house see Design No. 13. 



68 BOOK OF DESIGNS FOK SCHOOL HOUSES. 

Design No. 10. (Maywood.) 

This is a design made in 1880, but has not yet been built. 
It is for a ward-school building, and thougli an excellent de- 
sign it possesses no special points of interest over any other 
for an eight-room school house. 




Design No. 10. Skoond Floou. 



Its cost would not probably vary far from $20,000, $22,000 
including heating and ventilation. It will be observed that its 
roof has a lower pitch than some of the others, but in this 
respect it loses in picturesqueness of effect when viewed exter- 
nally. This, however, should not bo a reason for condemning 
it, because in making drawings for it tlie roof could be raised. 
Generally the steep roofs are most admired. 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOK SCHOOL HOUSES. 



59 




Design No. 11. (Menominee, Mich.) Perspective. 



60 BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

Design No. 11. (Menominee, Mich.) 

This is a design that has been built at Menominee, Mich., 
and in a slightly modified form at Plymouth, Ind., and else- 
where. It is a design that was originally made without refer- 
ence to placing the scholars so that the light would reach the 




DKbKiN Xo. 11. FiusT Flooh. 



scholars over the left shoulder. After this improvement had 
been discovered the teachers' daises were changed in this 
<lesign so as to embody that improvement. 

This is a high-school building as shown here, the liigh- 
Hchool room being on the second floor on the south-east corner, 



BOOK OF DESIGKS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



61 



with a recitation room, D, and a principal's room, C, adjacent 
to it ; these rooms, with the recitation room, are the equivalent 
of two ordinary school rooms. 

This building is, however, different from others in this, — 
that it has its entrance doors on each side instead of in the 
center, the sexes dividing and going in and out at these two 
doors, with but few steps outside. Each door is covered with 




Design No. 11. Second Floor. 



a canopy roof. In its ventilation the exhaust principle is first 
down to the cellar, then out of the building through the shaft 
in the rear. If I were going to build another I should change 
this to the flue stacks, as in most of the others. 



02 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 




BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



63 



This house cost, in 1860, about $15,000. Its cost at pres- 
ent would likely be nearer $20,000, but, I think, would not 
exceed this sum. 

Design No. 12. 

This design is for a house of ten rooms. It is especially 
adapted to the construction of a building at two different times, 
in this case six of the school rooms, including that for the high- 




Design No. 12. First Floor. 



school room proper with its one or two recitation rooms off, or 
its one recitation room and principal's office, library, etc., may 
be built first, and the other four rooms,' two on a floor, when 
they are needed. The building complete will generally cost 



64 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



about $25,000, or tlie Hrst six rooms for about $16,000 or $17,- 
000 and tlie last four for $9,000 or $10,000. It is about the 
equivalent of an eleven-room house, the high-schOol room with 
its recitation room off being the equivalent of two ordinary 
school rooms. These rooms are smaller than generally made, 
and are calculated for about forty-eight scholars at single desks. 




DiosHiN No. 12. Skcond Flook. 



Jf seated at double desks the seating capacity would be about 
fifty-six scholars to a room. Any School Board which thinks 
well of this general arrangement can have it modified to suit, 
or the rooms increased in size as desired. The arrows on the 
floor plans show the direction and place of exit of the foul air as it 
])as8e8 out of the room through a perforated base under the floor 
and to the ventilating Hues. 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



65 




Design No. 13. (Fergus Falls.) Perspective. 



66 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



Design No. 13. 

This design was made for a six-room house at Fergus Falls, 
Minnesota, where an eight-room house (see No. 14) was built 
from my designs last year. Tiiis I regard as one of the best 
designs for a six-room house that are contained in the book. 

There is one (No. 3) very similar in its interior appointments, 




Design No. 13. Fiust Floor. 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



67 



only that the main hall is two feet narrower than this one, and 
the dressing rooms are to be occupied by both sexes, while 
these have each a separate room for each sex, all nicely lighted 
and ventilated. Externally, this is a model in its design, but 
the exteriors may each be made to fit either design as preferred. 
This one, 'No. 13, is slightly plainer than the first, or No. 3, 
but will make the best building. 




Design No. 13. Second Floor. 



68 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 




BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



69 



Design No. 14. 

We will^close this series of designs with two floor plans and 
a perspective view of the high-school building, designed by 
the writer, lately built and now about to be completed at and 
for the citv of St. Paul, Minnesota. The floor plans here 




Design No. 14. First Floor. 



70 



BOOK OF DESIGNS PX)R SCHOOL HOUSES. 



sliown are tlie first, or iiiaiti floor, and tlio second, or liall floor 
plans. In addition to tlioso tliere is a large basement, in which 
there are offices for the clerk of the board, superintendent of 
public schools for the city, and a room for board meetings. 
These occupy the space at and near the part of the building 




Ukmon No. 14. Skcd.M) Fmiok. 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 71 

cornering on the two streets, while in another part are a suite 
of rooms for janitor and his family, for the heating boilers 
(steam), and water closets for pupils and teachers — both sexes. 
Beside these there are chemical experimenting rooms, etc., etc. 
All of these are in easy communication with the main floor and 
directly with outdoors by several passages and doorways. The 
main, or first floor (the one above the basement) has the prin- 
cipal's office, several ordinary school rooms and their usual 
appendages, also lecture rooms for chemistry and the sciences, 
except that for geometry and mathematics, which is on the 
second-story floor. On this latter floor also, are several school 
rooms, wardrobes, etc., and a notable feature of this story is 
its large lecture hall with its inclined floor, stage, etc. The 
reader will notice that at each end of the stage there is a stair- 
way leading down to the corridor on the flrst floor whereby 
the sexes may reach the stage privately and where a lecturer 
may also reach his place quietly should the hall be crowded. 

Another feature of this building is its immense stairway hall 
for getting to and from the lecture hall, which, with the two 
stairways direct to and from the stage, will give an assurance 
of security of egress in case of accident or flre. 

On the third floor there is a museum and library, and over 
the great lecture hall theie is a large room flnely lighted and 
ventilated and designed for gymnastic exercises. 

The grand stairway hall ,;goes up through the height of the 
building from the main floor and is covered with a large sky- 
light which was designed to fill this part of the building with 
a flood of light. 

In all its appointments it is one of the most complete 
and best high-school buildings that I have ever designed. It 
has been built under the immediate superintendance of D. W. 
Millard, a local architect, and if the heating and ventilation 
have been properly attended to and the design carried out as 
intended, it will be one of the best ventilated school buildings 
in the country. 



72 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



Design No. 15. 

Is a design tor an eight-room house built last year both at 
Fergus Falls, Minnesota, and at Escanaba, Michigan, It has 
seven rooms of the ordinary size, and one for the high school, 
a very large room, with a large recitation room off, and with 
wardrobes, principal's office, or retiring room, etc. Its cost at 
Escanaba was $21,000, and at Fergus Falls, where material, 
especially stone, was dear, it cost $24,000. 




Dksion No. I") Piusi'iiCTivK 



FIRES! FIRES!! 



HOW TO PREVENT THEM. 

Since this book went into the hands of the printer, one 
short week ago, I have heard of no less than three school 
buildings that have been burned, owing no doubt to the faulty 
construction of the buildings and flues, and such fires are 
common every winter. As soon as we begin to have cold 
weather we begin to hear of school houses burned. This is 
the "trial by fire" we read of. I improve this opportunity to 
try to impress upon the minds of School Boards and officers 
what they do not seem to understand : that architects are 
not all alike capable of designing these buildings so as to 
avoid exposure to fire. I had been doing more or less of this 
work for twenty odd years before I hit upon a method that I 
considered complete security against fire, but now every house 
I design is so constructed that it is almost an impossibility for 
it to get on fire if built as designed ; and here I want to say to 
each and every School Board that you cannot aff'ord to take 
the chances of having your buildings burned, and children and 
teachers turned out of doors in a fright, for the sake of saving 
the small pittance it would cost to employ an experienced 
and COMPETENT architect to supervise such work. It may seem 
egotistic in me to say it, but I have no doubt my services in 
superintending the construction of such a building are worth 
more than those of any half-dozen local architects or builders 
that you can get, and simply for the reason that I have done 
so much of it that I know just where to look for faulty or de- 
fective work, while a younger individual, who has had a more 
limited experience, would pass over and suppose it all right. - 



74 BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

Almost every iirehitect has his specialties, and if he excels 
in anything it is in some one of these specialties, for no man 
can be supposed to know everything. 

If I liave any specialty in anything it is, no doubt, in the 
matter of ventilating buildings, and as I have designed a great 
many liundred scliool buildings of all grades, large and small, 
and a great many churches, public halls, etc., and have spent 
a great deal of time in the last twenty-five years in studying the 
application of tlie Ruttan System of Ventilation to these build- 
ings, I may be pardoned for thinking myself an expert in this 
branch of my business, whereas if you employ a new beginner, 
or a comparatively new man, there are fifty chances to one 
that he is now where I was twenty to twenty five years ago. 
I have made it a special study to devise some way to attach a 
furnace to the heating flues, or the heating flues to the furnace, 
in such a manner as to leave no chance for the surrounding 
woodwork to get on Are, and 1 tliink I have succeeded ad- 
mirably. An inspection of the floor plans on these pages, 
with this explanation, will indicate substantially how I do it. 
Adjacent to each school room, and generally behind the 
teacher's dais, is set a stack of flues, in which stack there is a 
smoke flue, flues for ventilation and for the passage of the hot 
air up to the room to be heated and ventilated. Then I set 
the furnace, generally with one side flat against these flues, in 
the basement. The hot air passes from the furnace, which is 
inclosed in brick walls, to the hot-air flues, up which it goes 
direct to the room to be heated. The ventilation or foul air 
is taken out of the room under the floor, and the foul air goes 
directly uj) the ventilating flues to the open air above the 
building. 

In this way there are no metallic i)ipes, and no contact 
with woodwork of any kind that can possibly expose the build- 
ing to fire. Hence, if properly built, it may reasonably be 
pronounced absolutely safe from Are. 

The best parts of the skill in ventilating one of these build- 
ings is in knowing how to construct the valves and other 
accessories connected with the hot-air and ventilation flues. 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. / 

These are all covered by letters patent and by copyright, so 
that no one can use tliem without my permission. 

It will readily be seen that a building so constructed is 
absolutely secure against danger from fire, but to know that a 
building is so constructed, it must have an occasional inspec- 
tion by an expert. 

If I have an order for plans I arrange all these matters to 
meet the necessities of the case, for they are not necessarily all 
alike, but with a building properly designed, and all these 
flues and their details properly constructed, this ventilation 
will work like " clock-work," with little or no danger from fire, 
and none at all if carefully and properly built. To get the 
benefit of my twenty-five years of constant study and observa- 
tion of these things, it wdll be necessary that you have me 
design your building. To get somebody else to copy my 
designs elsewhere or from my books is only to attempt to 
get from me in a clandestine way that which is mine, and you 
take the risk of having eventually to "render unto Caesar," 
etc. 

I am fully aware that a large proportion of the school 
buildings that are built are more or less patterned after my 
designs, so far as their authors have got posted, especially as 
regards heating and ventilation, for, though I make the venti- 
lation substantially after the Ruttan principle, yet it is the 
Ruttan improved^ for, with all due respect to the memory of 
the late Hon. Henry Ruttan and his system of ventilation, as 
he left it, it would not be tolerated at the present time ; still he 
left too much that is good tothave it ignored altogether, or to 
call it after any other name, and yet the most valuable details 
connected with his system are of my designing. In saying 
this I have no reference to the mode of heating. Any method 
of heating is good that will furnish a sufficiency of heat with a 
sufficient amount or volume of fresh air. This Mr. Ruttan 
could not do with any heater that he had devised, and his suc- 
cessors, the present Ruttan companies, out of pure necessity, 
devised a furnace for the special use of heating public build- 



76 BOOK OP" DKSIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

ings, and their furnaces will lieat a school house and ventilate 
it if a suitable number, or those ot suitable size, are used. 

Seeing that I have set up so large a claim to what is known 
as Ruttan ventilation as applied to school buildings, it may be 
well for me to say that I claim nothing in regard to the sev- 
eral designs as specimens of architectural designing. The 
pictures in these pages are (the most of them) of buildings 
already built, and were designed to suit the fancy of those for 
whom they were made, and, while they may be good enough, 
they are not supposed to be any better than any other archi- 
tect's clerks can make with the same opportunity and means. 
They are greatly inferior to what rnight be made with unlim- 
ited means, and generally these several designs are selected 
because of their inexpensiveness and adaptability for the great- 
est good to the greatest number. 

In conclusion I will say that, for buildings far away from 
my place of business, T can furnish the drawings with the 
Ruttan system of ventilation, with the improvements which I 
have from time to time devised, and I will make them so 
plain that a good mechanic will understand them perfectly, or 
the details and specifications will be understood by any mem- 
ber of the board, and if they, on account of distance, cannot 
afford to pay me for taking the responsibility of a full general 
superintendence, instead of the commission for a general 
superintendence I will make one journey for a final inspection 
of the building, at which time and place it is probable that I 
can ascertain if everything is all right, and the building secure 
from fires. Much the hest timl, however, for securing the 
latter object would be when the furnaces were being set. At 
this time everything woiild be uncovered and exposed, and if 
not all right it would be in a better condition to be corrected 
than at any other time. This would cost, beside the fee for 
plans, traveling expenses to and from and a moderate {'qc per 
dienc for time spent. 



APPENDIX. 



It was mj intention when I commenced this book to devote 
it entirely to School Architecture, but having been disap- 
pointed in getting engravings of some of my large buildings 
such as colleges, etc., ready in time for the printer, I shall 
have to substitute a few cuts of other buildings which I have 
on hand and ready, and which will be found hereinafter in 
their order. 

In offering my services for the construction of larger and 
consequently heavier buildings, it may be well that I should 
make some further suggestions in regard to my knowledge of 
construction and my past experience in this city and the sur- 
rounding country. 

When I commenced business, about twenty-seven years 
ago, the soil then was quite unlike what it is at the present 
time. There were comparatively but a small number of sew- 
ers and drains, and the city was down several feet lower than 
at the present time. 

Then it was not an unusual circumstance in putting up 
a block of stores to have to make foundations in a bed of 
liquid quicksand, and I well recollect of building three 
stores on State near Yan Buren street, where the quicksands 
were so thoroughly liquefied that it was only practicable to get 
the trenches for front walls by dipping out the quicksands and 
water at the same time, with buckets or water pails. Such a 
condition of things would be the worst for getting a good 
foundation that can be imagined, and yet, with these disad- 
vantages, to the surprise of my client I put up his building 
without a flaw or crack in the front that was visible to the 
naked eve. 



78 BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCllooF- HOUSES. 

I liad (lone a good deal of this kind of work in the East on 
railroads and elsewhere, and ali/vn/.s with complete and nn- 
varving success. I have always used concrete for such soft 
soils as was then, or is even now, in this city and elsewhere on 
these western prairies, and never feel secure and certain of 
complete success when this important material is omitted. 

The old architects here, apparently, knew little or nothing 
about its value or use, and for fifteen years, or down nearly to 
the time of the great fire, they used large dimension stone at 
the bottom as the best foundation thci/ could make and ignored, 
concrete altogether. The then citizens of Chicago will not 
fail to recollect the Unitarian Church built on AYabash Avenue, 
the stone tower in the front of which, with the front, settled so 
badly that it had to be taken down. They then thought to 
save it by driving piles, but after piling it and rebuilding on 
them, it still went down, the tower going twenty inches, or 
two feet, into the mud and quicksand, and finally to save the 
stone they took down the tower a second time and rebuilt the 
church without it. Other churches were building near by, the 
First Baptist for instance, the front of which settled and the 
walls cracked and opened on the sides back about thirty feet 
from the front so that a man's arm might be laid into it. All 
this and the settling of the tower of the Unitarian Church was 
for the want of a proper foundation of concrete. They should 
not have settled at all, or comparatively little, if any. The 
files of the Chicago Tribune of that date indicate clearly who 
it was that did not know how to build good foundations then, 
though the same parties have learned something since, and the 
ground, through the system of sewers and drains, has become 
entirely less difficult to build upon than in those early daj's. 
On the same street with the buildings before named, the writer 
laid the foundations, broad and deep, of w^hat was when built, 
a Congregational Church, but after the great fire it was sold to 
the Catholics, and has since been known as St. Mary's Church. 
Nearly every building built by the writer, especially if it was 
a large building, had foundations of concrete, and I seldom or 
never hud any trouble with buildings settling ; while up to 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 79 

twelve or fifteen years ago, and with some of them till a much 
later period, the old architects who were and still are my con- 
temporaries here, have ignored it to the disadvantage of them- 
selves and clients. At the present time, however, there is 
seldom a good building put up bj anybody that does not have 
a concrete base. I dwell on these facts for the purpose of re- 
minding the public, and those of them who were not here in 
early days, that in some of the most important improvements 
in building the writer has taken a decided lead. 

In the selection of an architect it is of much greater im- 
portance to find one whose record is good in all such things as 
an unprofessional man is not supposed or not likely to under- 
stand, while in the mere matter of architecture every man 
thinks at least that he has the qualification of a critic, and that 
he can judge of his architect's production in this respect when 
laid before him. This is undoubtedly true, at least to a limited 
extent, and admitting it to be so, every individual who is going 
to build an expensive building in which he does not care to 
have any vital failure, should see to it that he gets an architect 
in whose skill in this respect he has confidence, and if need be 
he can take the chances of judging for himself of the practical 
and artistic part of his productions when they are submitted 
for his inspection, but it is not an uncommon thing for a busi- 
ness man to be entirely misled and deceived by having a fancy 
picture paraded before his gaze when as a building its con- 
struction is entirely faulty and impracticable. 

In architecture as in almost every other profession or busi- 
ness there are always those whose chief capital in trade is 
"cheek," and on the pi'inciple that "Doctors know each other 
better than other people know them," so it is with architects, 
and if other people knew some of them as well as some of them 
know the balance of the lot, there would be a very difterent 
dispensation of favors from what there now is. 

I respectfully invite all, whether in the city or country, if 
they have grounds that they want to improve to give me the 
size of lot and its surrouiidings and let me give them a study 
or sketch. Then if it does not suit they can try some one else. 



80 BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

Thej will have incurred no expense by giving me the first 
trial. 

There is still another important item which should always 
be taken into account in the selection of an architect, and that 
is his 

INTEGRITY. 

I have lived in this city long enough to have established a 
reputation either for integrity or the want of it, and I appeal 
to my neighbors and friends, or enemies, if I have any, and 
more especially to the best builders of Chicago, who have 
known me well, since a resident here, to say if to their knowl- 
edge I have ever in the least degree been under a cloud, and 
I challenge one and all of the less reputable class of builders 
or tradesmen to say that I ever to their knowledge in my pro- 
fessional practice departed in the least degree from the path of 
rectitude. 

I know there are those whose records are not clean in this 
respect, but there is not a man in Chicago who can truthfully 
say that mine is one of them, or who dare say that he overpaid 
me money or its equivalent for the purpose of influencing my 
action professionally or otherwise, in any respect. I get as 
nearly the proper and established commission for everything I 
do as circumstances will permit, but never take commission or 
fees from my clients at rates lower than I can afford to do their 
work, and then supplement them by taking fees from, or by 
collusion with, contractors as against my client's interest, nor 
do they often offer or propose such collusion. Such ap- 
proaches, if made, are usually from strangers. 



MISCELLANEOUS DESIGNS. 



Tlie lirst of this series of designs, A, is a cut ot the 
exterior of Lii Salle county jail, Ottawa, Illinois. Cuts B 
and C, are, respectively, of the first and second floors of this 




jail. The third floor of the pi'ison is also a duplicate of its 
second floor. The building might be improved somewhat, 
were it to be built again, though it is in the main a very perfect 
jail building. Its cost was about $27,000 or $28,000. 



82 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 





BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



83 




ID 



84 lUxiK OF 1>ESIGNS FOIl XllOOL IHHSKS. 

I'l.ATTKVILLK (MTV IIAI.L. 

The cat L) is tlie City Hall at Platteville, Wisconsin. 

This building is r)OxlOO feet, and has a bas'ement, iirst and 
second stories and a gallery in the hall above the second floor. 
In the basement is the heating and ventilating apparatus. The 
ground at the rear' of the building is several feet lower than at 
the front, and has two or three rooms foi' fire engines and 
apparatus, each of which is entered at the rear. 

On the main or first floor, at the front, are two offices for 
city clerk and attorney, respectively. Then there is a city or 
nninicipal coui-t room, and back of these a jury i-oom. ticket 
ofhce and dressing rooms, main entrance hall, stairway, etc. 

On the second fiooi- there is a large hall with gallery on 
three sides, and stage on the fourrli, designed for social par- 
ties, lectures, operas, etc. 

!S. M. STEPPIENSON IIOTP^L. 

The next in order is cut E, or the S. M. Stephenson Hotel. 
at Menominee, Michigan. This is a substantial brick building 
of about fifty rooms, contained in three stories and a cellar, 
ft fronts on Main street with its back side toward the bay or 
lake, from the rear of which are suspended galleries wluM-e 
guests may enjoy the lake breezes in the hot weathei- of sum- 
mer. 

This hotel, though not large, has been pronounced by trav- 
elers a "gem." It is provided with the modern improvements 
of a first class hotel, such as bath rooms and water closets, 
ample in number, has good drainage, gas, is heated by steam, 
etc. 

The office has its fioor laid of marble tiles, including the 
porches in front, and is some seventy-five feet deep. 

At the rear of the office is a very fine dining room that 
overlooks the bay, which, at this point, is some twenty miles 
wide. 'I'hougli plain in its exterior it is nevertheless a first- 
class conntry hotel in all its ajipointmiMits. 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



85 




86 



BOOK OK DESIGNS KOli >( H<M»I. IH»l'SES. 



We givi' as next in order of tlu'sc iniscclljiinMius cuts tin- 
late residence of the Hon. Reuben Klwood, member of con- 
gress from the Fifth Jiepresentative District. Sycamore, Illi- 
nois, as it was some three years ago (see cut F), and in design 
G the same residence aftei- having been transformed into a 
more modern bnilding, with some additions, etc. By this 
transformati(jn we may see wliat a unique and pleasing build- 
ing can be nnide of an ugly, uncomely old one. by a sufficient 
application of bi-ains and ducats. 




IF 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



87 




C3- 



CHURCHES. 



As I have alreadj^ observed elsewhere (pages 5 and 6), I 
have heretofore designed a great number of cluirches, several 
of which are the best in this part of the country, and I give in 
these pages several cuts of these buildings. The first in order 
is the Union Park Congregational Church, on the corner of 
Washington Boulevard and Ashland Avenue, and fronting 
directly on Union Park, in this city. (See design D. ) This is 
now one of the oldest of our first-class churches, and is chiefly 
noticeable for its lofty spire (250 feet), and for its having been 
the first amphitheater church in its full development, and with 
a bowled floor, ever built in this country. It has its counter- 
part in the Church of the Universalist Society of Minneapolis, 
Minnesota, which was built more recently, and again in the 
Church of the First Congregational Societ}^, Mansfield, Ohio, 
and still again in that of the First Baptist Society, Grand Rap- 
ids, Michigan, and elsewhere in a more varied form, as the 
Congregational Church at Madison, Wisconsin, and many 
others. 

I have found in practice that the style of seating in design 
H (see floor plans I and J) is best obtained when the body 
of building takes about the form of a square, and a larger 
audience can be more comfortably seated in a house having 
these relative dimensions than in most others. 

A very large gallery may be advantageously constructed in 
such a house. See floor plan I and outside door and entrances 
to basement plan J, where A and A are the vestibules, main 
entrance and stairs, while B B on main floor are stairs to the 
gallery. 



90 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 




K 



BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



91 



It is to be regretted that we have to go to press without a 
gallery plan. It will be observed that these gallery stairs, 
BB, open on to a large spacious landing, or on a level of 
the main floor, thus giving ample space for the audience from 





I & J" 



'.>•_* HOOK OK DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 

the iialk'i'v t'l mix with th;it hitlow, hrtorc ir<)in<^ (h)\v"ii thi' 
main stairs. 

At the roar of the lJllihlill^,^ in eacli of the corners, are 
spacious tli<ifhts of stairs that lead down t(» the basement, an<l 
thence to tlie streets, hv which means botli ingress and egress 
are made amph'. 

Ibit a small portion of the basement tioor — that next tlu' 
front — is shown in these cuts. E. (t, F are working I'ooms, E 
})eing tlie main Sunday-school room and lecture room; G, a 
ladies' j^arlor and waiting room; F, infant class room; D, Sun- 
day-school library; C, clothes cb)set, etc. In this case the 
frontages are east and south, but in this res])ect the plans can 
be modified to suit circumstances. 

The exterior design II, indicates a square, each side being 
about the same length. The roof is in pyramidal form, with 
like inclination on each of the four sides, and these are relieved 
by steep gable and othei-wise. 

This is a very clieaj) and strong form for a roof covering 
such a building. No roof C(^ntaining so small an amount of 
timber can be devised that will be so absolutely strong and 
unvielding as this one. Then again, it admits of a Hat, plain 
ceiling, or a ceiling with all the ornamentation the congrega- 
tion is willing to pay for; or it may take any form the skill 
and taste of the architect may devise. In these several points 
it has no equal. 

A small, cheap building of the kind has been built in this 
city in the last two years, and it is considered by every one a 
com])lete success. It is the uniting of a lulnlninin of material 
with a maxtmum of skill and constru(;tive genius, and the re- 
sult is the best construction that can be conceived, and the 
least c<tst, and it is the same, whether a])p1icd to a cathedral or 
''the little church around the corner." 

K is a design for a church at Fargo, Dakota Territory, but is 
not yet built. It has no basement, but only a cellar for heat- 
ing ajiparatus — may have a gallery, or otherwise, and is to 
have its Sunday-school room on onc^ side, and outside of the 
main building, to which it may be made a j)art of the audito- 



'•'4 HOOK OF DESIGNS FOK SCHOOL HOUSES. 




BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES. 



95 



riuiii when the latter shall be full. Some of the rooms for 
social purposes can very well be located in the attic of the 
pyramidal roof that covers this part of the building. Church 
trustees that want to build such a construction as this, can 
have a set of plans such as we make for practical use sent 
them for more close examination in their several parts. 




1^ 



This cut represents a church of moderate size, say seat- 
ing 200 to 250 people, which can be increased or decreased to 
meet the demands of any congregation. It has the pyramidal 
roof, a small bell tower, and, withal, is a neat and tasteful 
design, where style and taste can be appreciated. Plans will 
be furnished for a building of any size and capacity, in this 
style, or varied according to circumstances, to suit. , 



020 313 286 4 i 

96 BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR SCHOOL IIOISES. 

Cut N is 11 perspectivi' <»J" a church ori^iuallv dcsigncil for 
a town hi the southern part of this state. This cut represents 
an ohler style of buihliny; than some of those that have pre- 
ceded it. but it lias some excellent features, especially inside. 
( )ne of tlieiu is its Sunday-school room in front of the main 
auditorium, to which it may be attached for the purpose of 
increased tioor sjiace. It has its social rooms over the Sunday- ' 
scbo<.>l rooms, such as kitch»'n. parjoi'. dressinii; rooms, etc. 




Tliis eiuls oui" series of miscellaneous designs, but we have 
still a great many others, and shall be making more from time 
to time in the usual routine of business. Persons wanting to 
build a fancy officer building, or a ])anking house, in the city 
or country, will do well to call at our office, or open corre- 
spondence in regard to such. 



^ 



RUTTAN VENTILATION IMPROVED. 




F1.00K Flan. 



REFERENCE LETTERS. 

WAy Warm air flues. 
V, Ventilation flue. 
<S, Smoke flue. 

The arrows indicate where the fonl air leaves the school room, and its direction 
after leaving it. 



LIBRfiRY OF CONGRESS 



020 313 286 4 



RUTTAN VENTILATION IMPROVED. 




.4, Koul iiir milliiiiii;,' cliuiiibi,T. 

C. Foul air lliic^ licydiid the wiiriii air thu'. 

I), Man liolc. 

W A, VVnrin air lliir. Hhowiiig connection with fiirniice. anil inlii into school n 



